Innovative.Digital.Educational

2015-2016 Tech.Ed highlights

Currently the Grade 6’s are hard at work on their spaghetti bridges. Already I see some amazing designs! Check out that scaffolding. Wow!

Rocket Launching – The Next Few Weeks….

Friday, Feb 26th – 11:52am

This was an outstanding day for our launch! It was a little darker than usual due to an slightly overcast sky.

Our first launch was the “Red-White-Blue”x Argent sounding rocket from Estes Pro line. It was fitted with an AeroTech G80NT (new blue thunder propellent). Click below to see the video.

The rockets velocity clocked in at 251 m/sec or 903 km/h according to our Jolly Logic II altimeter with a maximum altitude of 896 meters (2939 feet).

The next launch was done with a rail launcher. A modified AeroTech AstroBee D sounding rocket was used along with a RunCam RC II micro camera. The rocket was loaded with a AeroTech G125-14A motor. When ignited, the rocket climbed to 486 meters but the flight speed was only 123 m/sec or 442.8 km/h at peak. But this rocket weighed nearly 800 grams! The rocket spun signifcantly off the rail during its ascent. It was a text book launch and the video shows the entire area of Colwood and Royal Bay!

This video has replaced sounds and is slowed down significantly.

Launch #2 – louder and higher

Using a slightly more “showy” energetic motor, I went ahead and loaded an RMS AeroTech motor using white lightning propellent. This motor had a significantly longer burn although it has a lower average thrust than that of blue thunder propellent. I was able to capture both video and images of this launch below. Speed was clocked in at 728 km/h – peak. Below are some of the images and a movie taken from the top section of the rocket using the RC RunCam II camera. Enjoy!

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Monday, Feb.22nd – 11:55am

We launched a modified and underweight Estes Ascender on an AeroTech G125-14A. The rocket travelled skywards. Early on in the rocket’s flight – I could see the rocket suddenly fly apart after a shock ring around the fins was observed. You can see the main picture and if you look closely you might be able to see two specks beside the rocket contrail (left) and (far upper right). These are the rocket pieces that flew off the rocket during flight. This caused the rocket to corkscrew. I did take into consideration before flight that this event could happen. These are very lightweight pieces and were at no risk to the people on the ground. The rocket was already several hundred meters up when this event occurred. These events do happen at times. It did however travel, momentarily to just above Mach 1 before having it’s fins shredded.

A video of the launch is on it’s way, so stay tuned!

Here is a rocket launch done, Friday Feb.12th – 11:45am at the Allandale Gravel Pit. We used an AeroTech “blue thunder” E30 on an Estes Maxi Alpha III . See the video below. Unfortunately we’ve not been able to locate the rocket as of yet. Stay tuned! It was a spectacular flight! Thanks J.J. and K.G. !

This rocket attained an altitude of 559 meters and travelled 118 m/sec (425 km/h) at top speed. The AeroTech E was a bit overkill for this little rocket but sure fun! The rocket saw nearly 20 times normal gravity stresses or 20G. No fin shredding, so we know that it was very well built! Unfortunately it got caught in the side winds and was blown off course.

Here are the Grade 6 – foam core scale model homes. It’s amazing to see these student led design take shape! Here are some great student examples below.

Model Rockets are in the first stages of construction. Below you can see the fin assemblies and the body tubes being put together. Some fins are made from 1/8″ plywood while others are polystyrene and polycarbonate. In order for these fins to survive the journey at +900 km/h, gel based epoxy fillets are needed to firmly secure these fins to the body tube.

Update: You can see the rockets are now ready for launch. They have been painted so that they can be easily tracked when launched.

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Time for some destructive testing on these bridges. It is true that a lot of time and effort has gone into building these bridges! But how much weight will they support?

As these students found out quickly …. it’s not how much material you use, it’s how you use it.

As of January 11 2016 – The most weight supported thus far is 43.2 lbs (19.6 kG) for the 500 gram challenge. Can anyone beat the record set in Term 1?

Let’s have a look at the Grade 6 spaghetti bridges! These students are just getting started. Already, I see some amazing design ideas taking shape!

Grade 7 ~ Rocketry

Lift off of the Astro Bee D with a G125-14A motor

IGNITION!!!

Grade 6 ~ Spaghetti bridge challenge.

NEWS UPDATE – 500 gram/ 50 cm bridge span challenge.

We have one bridge that is officially holding a school record for our weight category of 43.2 lbs (19.6 kG). This is Tess, Madison & Jorgia’s group from 7-1 Wood Shop – Tech Ed 7. When you think about it…. this bridge held 32 times it’s own weight before it collapsed! That is pretty amazing!